Prime Minister Joseph Muscat hailed the positive European and local council election results for the Labour Party, in which the party was victorious in both, winning four of the six seats in the former, and gaining a majority of seats in 47 of the 68 local councils.

The “historical majority” at the polls, Muscat said, “places a great responsibility on the Labour Party.”

Speaking in Nadur, Muscat said that today (Sunday) he will be speaking with the Labour MEPs to see how they will be working together in the next five years, having laid out a clear plan already.

Focusing on the local councils, he noted that there were councils where no party had taken the majority of the seats, and said that they will be working as a party to take all the decisions that work for the respective communities.

“We do not work in partisan ways but work in favour of those that want good things for those villages.”

He did make a point to note the “symbolic” fact that, for the first time, the local council of the capital city Valletta was now held by a majority of councillors from the Labour Party.

He also noted the further consolidation of Labour strongholds, and localities that were previously considered to be battleground states were now safely in the hands of his party, such as Mellieha, St Paul’s Bay and San Gwann.

Youths and women also formed part of his speech as he celebrated the demographic shift of councillors elected in this election. He said that Gozo had also shifted towards Labour, a situation he strongly believed would happen when he took over the PL leadership.

Muscat noted how the Labour Party gained 18% advantage in local council elections, and referred specifically to Gozo, saying, “I do not have words enough to thank Gozo for everything you have done for us.

Muscat explained how the Labour Party in local council elections “increased by 15 councilors and gained control of five more local councils, making that a total of 47 local councils. This means that 70% of local councils bundle country now majority of the Labour Party.”

While there was a slight disappointment in Munxar and Fontana locations where in the latter, the Labour Party obtained the majority of votes but not the required seats, in localities such as Gharb and Zebbug, which were of a Nationalist majority, the councils are now split with the Labour Party now having an equal number of seats.

Turning to Labour’s victory in Valletta, Muscat referred to “the symbolic value that we had when for the first time we won the majority in our capital city, Valletta. We also managed to win a majority for the first time also in Siggiewi.“

Other localities where he mentioned the Labour Party managed to gain the majority of seats were St Paul’s Bay, Mosta, Mellieħa, Mqabba and Birkirkara

Muscat also mentioned other localities, which had started off with Nationalist Party majorities, “but which today have glaring Labour Party majorities,“such as Floriana, Pietà and Santa Venera.

On the other hand, in places where the Labour Party has always had the majority of seats, votes increased further still for the Labour Party.

Special thanks were reserved by Muscat for young people and all the women who participated in these elections.

“We had nearly 100 young people, 98 to be precise, elected. 36% are young councillors. Of these young people, we have 16 mayors and 16 deputy mayors.

As regards women, the Prime Minister expressed his satisfaction that 73 female Labour councillors were elected. “27% is a great number, but it is still not enough. We need to achieve 50% gender parity in politics.”

Newly elected MEP Josianne Cutajar, a Nadur native, said that in the next five years the party must be effective to stop once and for all the politics of extremism and hate that has established itself in Europe, and, unfortunately even amongst us.

She also said that she will be focusing on issues such as jobs, and the quality of those jobs, worker’s rights, and pushing to give people more opportunities for work- life balance.